A company has contacted me claiming I am violating their copyrights. ie. AirTV is their name, airtv.com is their website, my website is airtvsports.com. They made a modest cash offer but I think the domain is worth more. Any advise would be appreciated.
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Actually, assuming you’re in the United States, the issue is whether you’ve violated the federal anti-cybersquatting statute. And you should consult an attorney, because their next step could be either a complaint to ICAAN, the agency that resolves domain disputes, or an in rem action in federal court under the Cybersquatting statute in the jurisdiction in which your registrar is located.
That having been said, asking for more than they’re offering is *not* necessarily an indication of bad faith under the statute. There are many other more important factors – about which your attorney will advise you.
It isn’t likely you’d get a price for it sufficient to cover the legal costs of fighting it out in court should they decide to pursue it. Since you haven’t even established a presence on airtvsports.com yet, why not just sell it?
It all depends on when and why you registered the domain.
If you had a good faith reason to choose that name, and can provide proof during proceedings that you choose the name for a reason that had nothing to do with competition or trademark infringement, then you can keep the domain.
As a side note, asking for more money from them would be taken as evidence of bad faith on your part, and would hurt your case.
Especially, since according to internet whois records, airtvsports.com is not currently registered to anyone. And airtv.com has been registered since 1997.
And it’s not copyright infringement unless you copied their website content. Just using the name is a trademark issue. Different laws apply.